Canonical launched the Ubuntu Edge Indiegogo campaign with a lofty goal of $32 million. After the campaign launched we saw several rounds of price adjustments and even a sizable corporate backing — but in the end it looks like the pledges have fallen short of that goal amount. Needless to say, there still may be some hope in seeing an Ubuntu phone at some point in the future.
For now the folks at Canonical have said that despite the bit about the campaign falling short of that goal, they were able to “take away so many positives.” They go on to talk about how they appreciate the (close to) 20,000 individuals that backed the project as well as the business support. The campaign saw $80,000 from Bloomberg LP and $7,000 from “several” smaller businesses.
In the end they had a total of $12,812,776 showing on the Indiegogo page. Perhaps more important as they move forward, the details coming from Canonical go on to talk about how they feel “the big winner from this campaign is Ubuntu.” Because of this they were able to showcase what Ubuntu can do on a phone and have gotten some additional support and attention.
Here is where the possibility of Ubuntu phones comes in. Canonical mentioned how other Ubuntu phones will be arriving in 2014 and have told backers to they “won’t have much longer to wait.” Furthermore, this support from the campaign is said to have spurred some talk with “major” manufacturers and as a result some of the “world’s biggest mobile networks” have signed up to be a part of the Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group.
Of course, in the end this still means the Ubuntu Edge isn’t going to be developed based on this campaign. And for the bottom line, the folks at Canonical did leave those backers will a small sliver of hope and have said that “perhaps one day we’ll take everything we’ve learned from this campaign — achievements and mistakes — and try it all over again.”
SOURCE: Indiegogo
